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Miacids, scientific name Miacidae, is Greek for mother animal. As the name suggests, Miacids was the ancestor of basically all canines including; cats, bears, dogs, skunks, mongooses, hyenas, and all other felids and canids. They lived about 55 million years in the late Cretaceous period.
Labelled diagram of Miacids, image obtained from http://europuppyblog.com/media/Miacis.jpg.jpeg
Taxonomy of Miacids
Explanation
Kingdom: Animalia
Animals (one of the five kingdoms)
Phylum: Chordata
Animals in which their young are born alive and suckled
Class: Mammalia
Animals that suckle their young
Order: Carnivora
Meat eaters
Family: Miacidae
N/A
Habitat
Map of where Miacids lived, image obtained from http://www.scotese.com/paleocen.htm
During the late Cretaceous period, the climate in Paleocene was warm and humid with a lot of forests. Dinosaurs were extinct leading to other animals to evolve. Among the many new species, one species by the name of Miacids came into existence. They were the ancestor of all modern canines and lived in the woodlands of Europe. However, at that time, they were very small creatures about 20cm in length and weighed only about 1to 2 pounds. Despite their sizes, they were extremely vicious and had carnassials to defend themselves. Their carnassials were used for chewing and tearing meat, a trait which is still present in modern canines.
Unfortunately, no matter how vicious they were, due to their small sizes, they were easily killed by larger prey. Thus, most of them lived in trees in small groups in order to avoid big predators like the european cave lion. However, by living in trees, they could only eat insects and small mammals.
Image of the environment that Miacids lived, image obtained from www.paleocene.com/paleocene.html
Over time, Miacids became very swift tree climbers and started to ambush larger prey. They stalked their prey from above for a while before jumping down to attack the prey. Because of their sharp teeth, and small agile bodies, they were able to make lethal attacks from all angles while being able to retreat up trees if predators came. Not long after developing that technique, those that were better at stealth attacks evolved to Vierravidae (cats, hyenas etc) while those more suitable to ground attacks evolved to caniforms (dogs, bears etc).
Adaptations for Survival Physical Adaptations
Claws Due to the danger of large predators, Miacids had to hide or run away from them all the time. Unfortunately their small legs couldn’t get them very far before they were caught so some of them began to develop adaptations to climb trees. To be able to climb trees and stalk silently, Miacids’ claws had opposable thumbs. The thumbs were sharp and could bend which allowed Miacids to cling onto basically anything. Miacids first developed this adaptation to avoid predators by climbing up tall trees but as they mastered tree climbing and developed sharp teeth, they started to attack larger prey.
The environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be to avoid getting eaten by predators. Miacids achieved that and when they learnt how to efficiently use that adaptation; they used it for their benefits and attack back the predators. Thus, if an animal is forced to evolve a new adaptation to survive, it may be able to use that adaptation for its own benefit later on in life.
Teeth
Although Miacids’ teeth were primitive at that time, they were still able to tear down their enemy due to their large numbers. The most lethal part of Miacids’ teeth was the 4 upper premolars and one lower premolar. The reason is because the premolars positioning was exactly like a scissor so they could tear and slice meat easily, a trait that is still seen in living canines today. Moreover, the teeth of Miacids were long and thin unlike modern-day canines and could be regrown if they were broken or damaged.
The most obvious environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that the Miacids had to have a weapon to kill their prey. Just relying on their sharp claws wasn’t enough to take down larger prey so they developed sharp and long teeth which could inflict fatal wounds to their prey.
Behavioural Adaptations
Reproduction
Despite their aggressive behaviour against enemy, Miacids are very gentle when it comes to finding a partner. The female Miacids first make a ‘nest’ in a tree and then produce soft ‘cooing’ sounds to attract male Miacids when she is ready to reproduce. If two or more male Miacids come at the same time, the female Miacid will choose her partner and the others will just walk away. After that, the two partners will reproduce and in about a few months time, the babies will be born. At first, the babies are taken care of by the mother but after 2 months the father will teach the cubs one at a time to hunt. By doing that, the father is able to focus his attention entirely on the single cub and not be distracted by a few cubs wandering elsewhere. By the sixth month, the whole family will be able to hunt together and by the eighth month, some cubs will live elsewhere while one or two cubs will remain to take over its parents’ hunting ground.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that the parents need to teach their cubs everything before they know how to hunt. If they left the cubs to learn by themselves, then the cubs would have probably died in less than a week because of their small bodies. However, if the parents took good care of the cubs, the cubs would be able to hunt with the parents in the future which meant more animals to hunt a prey.
Living in groups
Unlike modern canines, Miacids needed to hunt in large groups in order to kill their prey because of their small sizes. They lived near each other in trees and often let their cubs play with each other in order to get along with each other. They rarely fought with each other as they shared their kill and didn’t mind about the others as long as nobody entered their ‘nest’. Only because of the excellent cooperation among themselves, they were able to kill large prey and soon evolved into predators themselves.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that if Miacids didn’t learn to cooperate with each other and hunt together, they would have perished easily. However, due to the fact that they were able to live and protect each other, they soon evolved into one of Earth’s top predators.
Physiological Adaptation Digestive system
The diet of Miacids was quite different to modern canines as they ate insects and meat. Their body was not particularly big so a small meal was sufficient to last a while. Their digestive system was able to digest both meat and insects so they were able to eat anything that they found. At first, they only ate bugs and insects as they were afraid of predators but as they developed new adaptations, they started to only consume meat. However, as meat wasn’t always available to them, their stomachs evolved to be able to store little amounts of meat for future use.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be the fact that when Miacids could kill large prey, they didn’t bother to eat bugs and insects and became carnivores. However, they weren’t always able to kill large prey successfully so they had to store as much meat as possible before their next successful kill.
Extinction pressure:
Miacids would have probably survived a lot longer if the ice age didn’t occur about 23 million years ago. Miacids were animals that lived in warm tropical climates for a long time so their fur wasn’t able to withstand the extreme cold. The only animals that survived were the ones that had thick fur and could store food during extreme climates. Bibliography 1. Miacids. (2010). A note about Miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from http://www.hevanet.com/jkl/miacids.html 2. World Lingo. (2010). Miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Miacids 3. Wise Geek. (2010). What are miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from Http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-miacids.htm 4. About.com. (2010). Miacis. Retrieved July 13, 2010 from http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/mesozoicmammals/p/miacis.htm
Miacids, scientific name Miacidae, is Greek for mother animal. As the name suggests, Miacids was the ancestor of basically all canines including; cats, bears, dogs, skunks, mongooses, hyenas, and all other felids and canids. They lived about 55 million years in the late Cretaceous period.
Habitat
Unfortunately, no matter how vicious they were, due to their small sizes, they were easily killed by larger prey. Thus, most of them lived in trees in small groups in order to avoid big predators like the european cave lion. However, by living in trees, they could only eat insects and small mammals.
Over time, Miacids became very swift tree climbers and started to ambush larger prey. They stalked their prey from above for a while before jumping down to attack the prey. Because of their sharp teeth, and small agile bodies, they were able to make lethal attacks from all angles while being able to retreat up trees if predators came. Not long after developing that technique, those that were better at stealth attacks evolved to Vierravidae (cats, hyenas etc) while those more suitable to ground attacks evolved to caniforms (dogs, bears etc).
Adaptations for Survival
Physical Adaptations
Claws
Due to the danger of large predators, Miacids had to hide or run away from them all the time. Unfortunately their small legs couldn’t get them very far before they were caught so some of them began to develop adaptations to climb trees. To be able to climb trees and stalk silently, Miacids’ claws had opposable thumbs. The thumbs were sharp and could bend which allowed Miacids to cling onto basically anything. Miacids first developed this adaptation to avoid predators by climbing up tall trees but as they mastered tree climbing and developed sharp teeth, they started to attack larger prey.
The environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be to avoid getting eaten by predators. Miacids achieved that and when they learnt how to efficiently use that adaptation; they used it for their benefits and attack back the predators. Thus, if an animal is forced to evolve a new adaptation to survive, it may be able to use that adaptation for its own benefit later on in life.
Teeth
Although Miacids’ teeth were primitive at that time, they were still able to tear down their enemy due to their large numbers. The most lethal part of Miacids’ teeth was the 4 upper premolars and one lower premolar. The reason is because the premolars positioning was exactly like a scissor so they could tear and slice meat easily, a trait that is still seen in living canines today. Moreover, the teeth of Miacids were long and thin unlike modern-day canines and could be regrown if they were broken or damaged.
The most obvious environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that the Miacids had to have a weapon to kill their prey. Just relying on their sharp claws wasn’t enough to take down larger prey so they developed sharp and long teeth which could inflict fatal wounds to their prey.
Behavioural Adaptations
Reproduction
Despite their aggressive behaviour against enemy, Miacids are very gentle when it comes to finding a partner. The female Miacids first make a ‘nest’ in a tree and then produce soft ‘cooing’ sounds to attract male Miacids when she is ready to reproduce. If two or more male Miacids come at the same time, the female Miacid will choose her partner and the others will just walk away. After that, the two partners will reproduce and in about a few months time, the babies will be born. At first, the babies are taken care of by the mother but after 2 months the father will teach the cubs one at a time to hunt. By doing that, the father is able to focus his attention entirely on the single cub and not be distracted by a few cubs wandering elsewhere. By the sixth month, the whole family will be able to hunt together and by the eighth month, some cubs will live elsewhere while one or two cubs will remain to take over its parents’ hunting ground.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that the parents need to teach their cubs everything before they know how to hunt. If they left the cubs to learn by themselves, then the cubs would have probably died in less than a week because of their small bodies. However, if the parents took good care of the cubs, the cubs would be able to hunt with the parents in the future which meant more animals to hunt a prey.
Living in groups
Unlike modern canines, Miacids needed to hunt in large groups in order to kill their prey because of their small sizes. They lived near each other in trees and often let their cubs play with each other in order to get along with each other. They rarely fought with each other as they shared their kill and didn’t mind about the others as long as nobody entered their ‘nest’. Only because of the excellent cooperation among themselves, they were able to kill large prey and soon evolved into predators themselves.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be that if Miacids didn’t learn to cooperate with each other and hunt together, they would have perished easily. However, due to the fact that they were able to live and protect each other, they soon evolved into one of Earth’s top predators.
Physiological Adaptation
Digestive system
The diet of Miacids was quite different to modern canines as they ate insects and meat. Their body was not particularly big so a small meal was sufficient to last a while. Their digestive system was able to digest both meat and insects so they were able to eat anything that they found. At first, they only ate bugs and insects as they were afraid of predators but as they developed new adaptations, they started to only consume meat. However, as meat wasn’t always available to them, their stomachs evolved to be able to store little amounts of meat for future use.
A possible environmental pressure that led to that adaptation would be the fact that when Miacids could kill large prey, they didn’t bother to eat bugs and insects and became carnivores. However, they weren’t always able to kill large prey successfully so they had to store as much meat as possible before their next successful kill.
Extinction pressure:
Miacids would have probably survived a lot longer if the ice age didn’t occur about 23 million years ago. Miacids were animals that lived in warm tropical climates for a long time so their fur wasn’t able to withstand the extreme cold. The only animals that survived were the ones that had thick fur and could store food during extreme climates.
Bibliography
1. Miacids. (2010). A note about Miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from http://www.hevanet.com/jkl/miacids.html
2. World Lingo. (2010). Miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/Miacids
3. Wise Geek. (2010). What are miacids. Retrieved July 10, 2010 from Http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-miacids.htm
4. About.com. (2010). Miacis. Retrieved July 13, 2010 from http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/mesozoicmammals/p/miacis.htm